12 marketing insights
It probably won’t surprise you that many businesses have little or no way of measuring the effectiveness of their marketing activities. If you don’t measure how do you know what’s working and what’s not? Common sense right?
I’d like to share with you my 12 top tips to help you with your marketing.
- Set up a measuring process before you start so that you have the Return on investment details at your finger tips
- Have more than one marketing strategy running at any one time, some may be quick, some may be a longer burn time
- Remember a person is a lead and enters your sales process only after they have expressed an interest in what you do, before then you are marketing to them
- Need to know your target market so you can decide which strategy is most appropriate – if you haven’t already now’s the time to sit down and map out who your ideal customer is. If you’re already trading look over your existing clients and those you’ve worked with in the past (profitable ones only!). Do they fall into a particular field, do they have particular needs or interests?
- You need quality leads which doesn’t mean quantity, it means quality. Your target being as tight as possible means that you appeal to people who you are likely to convert to customers once they leave your marketing arena and enter your sales funnel
- Where does your ideal customer hang out – this is an important question as it impacts the marketing platforms you use to promote your business. Ask your clients which social media platforms they use, what magazines and trade press they read, do they attend business meetings, are they subscribed to your newsletter, do they read your monthly blog? There’s no point spending time an effort creating content for Facebook business page if your audience is on LinkedIn.
- Know your competition – again it’s worth spending time doing your competitor analysis. There are likely to be businesses who are obvious competitors in that they offer similar products and services as you. However there may also be other less obvious competitors
- Create a Unique Selling Proposition – When working on your USP it might help you to understand that there are three different types.
- Perceived USP – This is where the customer perceives a difference or uniqueness in the product or service you offer.
- Actual USP – As you’d imagine this is where there is an actual difference. So the “highest quality”, “exclusivity”.
- Created USP – this is where you create a difference where no real difference exists. But that you offer something that your competitors don’t. Domino’s Pizza had a great example of this, with their “Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free.” They did actually mostly deliver within 30 mins anyway, they just told everyone they were guaranteeing it.
- Review your existing marketing activities – this exercise is designed to make you think about all areas of your marketing. List what you’re currently doing, what the costs of each activity are and the results you’re getting (the return on investment).
- Create a referral programme – referral rewards can be anything from discounts, gifts, invitations to special events, mutual referrals, or exclusive offers. This way you are encouraging your existing customers to spread the word of mouth love for your business and get something in return.
- Who is going to run your marketing campaigns – must be time set aside on a consistent basis, marketing is all about persistency and consistency
- Invest in your PR and marketing – this is an area that should never be skimped on. However it’s vital that you test and measure your activities as you go along. Give a new strategy 3 months, review the results and then alter accordingly.
- Whether in print or online it is important to ensure that you communicate your key messages. This could be through a press article to promote your new product launch, staff appointments, etc.
- Social media also plays a key part. Your potential customers will be checking you out on social media and via your website so it is important to ensure you have a good presence.
- Online advertising, whether through Facebook or Google can also be a cost effective way of generating new leads for your business.
Are you taking the time to regularly test, measure and re-optimise your campaigns? If not, why not?! Are you generating new leads from your campaigns?
Originally posted 2022-07-12 18:27:17.
Business Coach at Action Coach
Kathy’s passion is working with owners of successful small to medium-sized companies. She can help you to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you really want to be, whether it is to grow your business long-term or to implement an exit strategy.
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